The Mom Stop: Skies are no longer friendly

Tuesday

Apr 18, 2017 at 10:26 AMApr 18, 2017 at 10:29 AM

Lydia Seabol Avant More Content Now

There was a time when flying was a big deal.

People dressed up. You got real meals while in the air, with real plates and (gasp) even silverware that wasn’t plastic. Carrying luggage was free and you didn’t have to pay to pick which seat you wanted to sit in.

How things have changed in just the last two decades.

I was faced with this fact when flying with my husband and three young kids across the country last month; it was on an airline that not only charges passengers for checked luggage, but for carry-on luggage, too. If it hadn’t been for our two oldest kids carrying their own kid-size suitcases small enough to fit under the seat, we would have paid almost the same amount as a one-way ticket just for our luggage.

Want reclining seats? Not on our 5-hour flight. Our non-reclining seats had minimal padding and tiny trays the size of an iPad mini. Good luck trying to fit any drink on that. Not that drinks are given out for free anymore, anyways. On our particular discount airline, if you wanted anything other than water, you had to pay. And despite having to pay for all that luggage, our one checked bag was lost en route, even though it was a direct flight.

I’d much rather pay more upfront and have basic, expected services while traveling. But it seems that even the major airlines are instituting more fees, as United and American Airlines started charging for carry-on luggage for its “basic economy seats” this month. Delta Airlines, which still allows carry-on luggage for free, has joined United and American in also charging its “economy” customers to choose their seat.

Things have certainly changed.

But things can get worse, and did, when 69-year-old David Dao was bloodied as he was forcibly ejected from his United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, last week. A four-person United crew heading to Louisville needed to be on that flight, which was full. That meant that four paying customers had to be “re-accommodated” as United Airlines put it. When no one volunteered to leave the flight to make room for the United crew, Dao was randomly selected to be booted. When he refused to deplane, stating he was a doctor and had patients to see the next day, he was violently dragged off the plane by airport security.

On a video of the incident posted on April 9, a woman screamed “Please, my God, what are you doing? No, this is wrong. Please look at what you did to him.”

The incident has caused national outcry, causing United Airlines’ stock to drop as much as 6.3 percent on April 10. CEO Oscar Munoz issued an apology and promised the policies were being reviewed.

“We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off ... to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger; we can’t do that,” Munoz told “Good Morning America” last week.

I hope United Airlines follows through with their promise to change. I don’t blame the pilots or the flight attendants, who are just doing their jobs. Airlines customers may put up with having to pay for their luggage, drinks or in-flight entertainment. But paying customers are not cash cows to be milked for every penny and dime.

Airlines must recognize that its customers are human beings and deserve respect, something that was absent on that United flight to Louisville last week.

-- Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at lydia.seabolavant@tuscaloosanews.com.